Kathryn Garcia had just arrived for her Sunday morning shift in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newsroom when she took a phone call in February 2006.

At first, it sounded like a routine report that might or might not have been exaggerated, or might or might not have even been true. But when she heard the name Vice President Dick Cheney followed by something about a shooting, her attention focused fast.

“Then I realized this was huge, so I asked her to repeat the story all over again," recalled Garcia, who now goes by her married name, Schuster.

On the phone was Katharine Armstrong, the politically connected owner of the South Texas cattle ranch in nearby Kenedy County that bears her family's name. Around 5:30 the evening before, Armstrong told the reporter, the vice president accidentally shot another hunter when a covey of quail burst from a field just around sundown.

The other hunter, 78-year-old Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, was peppered with pellets on the side of his face and in his torso. He was in the hospital, but the wounds were not life-threatening.

The shooting that happened nearly 13 years ago recently muscled its way back into the national spotlight amid the advance publicity for the movie, "Vice," which depicts Cheney's long career in politics and stars Christian Bale in the title role.

Snippets from trailers and social media posts for the movie, set for nationwide release by Annapurna Pictures on Christmas Day, show Bale in an orange hunting vest firing a shotgun through an open car door while sitting in the back. An actor portraying Whittington is shown reeling after being sprayed by bird shot.

In real life those events would upend the Caller-Times newsroom and thrust the newspaper and its staff into the national spotlight.

After contacting her editors and the paper's chief political writer at the time, Jaime Powell, Schuster posted a quick story on the paper's website, and went out to cover her original assignment, a children's art show. But while she was out, her online story — posted before the age of social media — was blowing up.

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Kathryn Schuster when she was a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Texas. She was then Kathryn Garcia.(Photo: Caller-Times file photo)

The White House press corps and the major national news outlets scrambled to catch up. The early wire service accounts relied heavily on the Caller-Times' reporting. At a news briefing the next day, reporters pummeled President George W. Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, with complaints that they were not immediately notified by the White House or by Cheney's office.

Indeed, even though the shooting took place in the early evening on Saturday, Armstrong waited until Sunday morning to contact the Caller-Times.

"Let's just be clear here," then-NBC White House correspondent David Gregory loudly told McClellan, according to a report published by the Washington Post. "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper and not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way?"

Schuster said the national interest was so intense, that she was assigned to cover the coverage.

"All of the sudden, there was international phone calls and national reporters from CNN, Fox News and all the big-wigs coming and wanting phone interviews," recalled Schuster, then in her mid-20s and just a few years out of journalism school at Texas Christian University.

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Former Caller-Times politics reporter Jaime Powell interviews then-Gov. Rick Perry. Powell, later known by her married name of Jaime Steindorf, worked for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Texas from 2002-2010. She died in 2016.(Photo: Caller-Times File Photo)

Libby Averyt, the Caller-Times editor when the story broke and until 2017 its president, praised the work done by the paper both in breaking and following the mushrooming story. Averyt said Armstrong called the paper because of the source-building abilities of Powell, who worked for the Caller-Times from 2002 until 2010. She died in 2016.

"Yes this was a high-ranking federal official who was in a remote part of Texas, but because our staff, and this reporter in particular who worked much of her career to develop sources with people who trusted her and knew her to be a fair reporter, she was the one they called," Averyt said.

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Christian Bale as Dick Cheney, left, and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush in a scene from "Vice." On Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, the film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best motion picture musical or comedy. The 76th Golden Globe Awards will be held on Sunday, Jan. 6. (Matt Kennedy/Annapurna Pictures via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET951(Photo: Matt Kennedy, Annapurna Pictures via AP)

The Caller-Times obituary for Powell, who changed her last name to Steindorf, pays homage to the reporter's role in breaking the Cheney story. The story references a conversation she'd had with Armstrong after the shooting.

Averyt, meanwhile, pushed back against any notion that the paper was not up to the task of handling national news.

"I think we had every right to break that story as much as anybody else," she said. "Some of the Washington press corps sort of complained about it (but) I appreciate that we were recognized as a legitimate news source and we were able to break the story."

Harry Whittington recalls the events leading up to being accidentally shot by then-Vice President Dick Cheney while hunting quail in February 2006.(Photo: John C. Moritz/USA Today Network)

Whittington, in an interview this week with the Caller-Times, now a part of The USA Today Network, disputed the accounts depicted in the promotional footage for Vice.

"The quail hunting that we were doing was behind bird dogs," said Whittington, now 91 and still practicing law from his office two blocks from the Texas Capitol. "So we were walking and as the dogs found the birds, well then, you walk up on the covey and then they flush and you shoot.

"So there wasn't any automobile involved in the hunt at all."

Dick Cheney(Photo: Getty Images)

Annapurna Pictures spokeswoman Ashley Momtaheni could not say for sure whether the movie takes dramatic license with the hunting scene, but did say the movie was the product of "extensive, extensive research with witnesses that were there."

Whittington, who still has pellets lodged beneath his skin from the shooting, said he was not consulted by anyone associated with the film. But he does plan to see the movie once its released.

"I've heard so much about it," he said with some excitement.

In this photo from February 2006, Dr. David Blanchard (left) director of emergency services at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi, and Peter Banko, hospital administrator, explain how the one lead pellet was close to the heart of Harry Whittington who was shot by then-Vice President Dick Cheney.(Photo: George Gongora)

The biopic premiered in Los Angeles and has already garnered several Golden Globe nominations.

Schuster, now a mother of two living near Fort Worth, said she, too, is anxious to see it and hopes some mention is made of the Caller-Times coverage.

Averyt echoed that sentiment, and again praised Powell's doggedness.

"Jaime deserves so much credit," Averyt said. "She would have loved the fact that there was this movie coming out. I'm sorry that she's not here to see that."

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The stars were out for the world premiere of "Vice" on Tuesday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The biographical film stars Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney. Bale and his wife, Sibi Blazic, lead the red carpet. Click ahead to see who else was there. VALERIE MACON, AFP/Getty Images